St. Blogory’s— The internet café d’un prêtre à la retraite ac o offeiriad wedi ymddeol.

Wales (1942)

 

Wales (1942) from British Council Film on Vimeo.

 

Anniversary of a Terrible Injustice

In 2009, I made my third trip to Wales.

After taking a Welsh language course in Llanbedr (Lampeter), I made my way to Aberystwyth for several days as the guest of Stuart and Prudence Bell at St. Michael's Church's Rectory.

In the course of my stay I had several conversations with Lyn Dafis about Cymru (Wales) and the Welsh language (Cymraeg). Lyn is a Cymro Cymraeg (Welsh-speaking Welshman).

(If you wish, you may read about those conversations here and here and here and here.)

The other day I discovered several postings from Lyn, marking the 50th anniversary of a terrible injustice: the flooding of a valley with a small Welsh community to provide water for a city in England.

The story begins in 1956, when the Liverpool City Council sponsored a private bill to create a reservoir in the Tryweryn Valley.

According to www.parliament.uk: "Private Bills are usually promoted by . . . local authorities or private companies, to give themselves powers beyond, or in conflict with, the general law."

As a private bill, the English city of Liverpool could destroy the Welsh village of Capel Celyn (Holly Chapel) without the consent of its people— who waged an eight-year battle against it— and in spite of the vastly outnumbered 35 Welsh MPs who voted against the bill (the other Welsh MP abstained).

In 1965, the village and the valley were drowned.

Here's a contemporary account, "Sentence on a Valley":

 

And in this video, "Trywerin: the Road to Capel Celyn," as he tells the story and tours the area, the narrator reads a number of the names on the displaced gravestones: "Roberts . . . Roberts . . . Roberts . . . Jones . . . Roberts . . . Roberts . . . Roberts.

 

Here's another telling of the story, "Boddi Cwm Tryweryn/Flooding of the Tryweryn valley," in Welsh and English, accompanied by pictures and Enya's song, Dan y Dŵr: Under the Water.

 

And here's a haunting video of another submerged community, the "Drowned Village of Llanwddyn under Lake Vyrnwy in Wales," accompanied by Enya's Dan y Dŵr:

 

And finally, set to Barber's Adagio for Strings, a series of contemporary pictures from "Capel Celyn— the drowning of a village":

 

One of the flooded farms was Hafod Fadog, mentioned in the “Trywerin: the Road to Capel Celyn” video. A Quaker meetinghouse in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, some of its members emigrated to Pennsylvania for religious freedom.

Although the protests failed, they energized the Welsh nationalist party, Plaid Cymru, and the movement for Welsh devolution began.

Friday in Easter Week

Here's a wonderful Welsh singing event on Britain's Got Talent.

The song is Calon Lân, or "Pure Heart." And you can read the lyrics here.

Thanks to fy ffrind (my friend) Joe for sending me the link.

 

Thursday in Easter Week

Dihareb Cymraeg/Welsh Proverb

Ni waeth beth fo lliw'r delyn os da'r gainc.

The color of the harp doesn't matter if the tune is good.

Tuesday in Easter Week

Dihareb Cymraeg/Welsh Proverb

Melysaf y cân eos, ond nid erchis Duw i'r frân dewi.

Sweetest sings the nightingale, but God did not command the crow to be silent.

Dihareb Cymraeg/Welsh Proverb

Journey through Lent: The Thirty-second Step.

Nid twyll twyllo twyllwr.

'Tis no deceit to deceive a deceiver.

Dewi Celebration Continues With Cymraes Katherine Jenkins

Journey through Lent: NOT The Eleventh Step.

Sundays are in Lent and not of Lent because every Sunday is a celebration of the Resurrection. The Eleventh Step comes on Monday.

As we continue to celebrate St. David, here is the Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins singing during the 2004 (English) Football Association Challenge Cup final.

Talk about bringing the Church to the World!

And notice the several reactions from the crowds.

She stops singing at about 1:34; the rest of the video is football [soccer] colour [color] commentary.

 

 

Dewi Celebration Continues With Cymro Bryn Terfel

Journey through Lent: The Tenth Step

As we continue to celebrate St. David, here's a great number by Bryn Terfel.

Suo is the Welsh word for "buzz" or "hum" or "lull" or "hush."

Cân is the Welsh word for "song." So a Suo Gân (the C mutates to a G because it follows an "intrusive" word!) means Lull Song or . . . Lullaby

For the Welsh words and English translation, click here.

Thanks to my friend Dan for suggesting this.

 

Dewi Celebration Continues With Cymro Tom Jones

Journey through Lent: The Ninth Step

As we continue to celebrate St. David, here's a great number by Welshman Tom Jones, whose Welsh cadences may be heard in his interview before the music begins.

A good Lenten theme, too: Baby, Please Make A Change.

 

  

 

 

Dewi, Nawddsant Cymru (David, Patron Saint of Wales)

Journey through Lent: The Eighth Step

“Brothers and sisters, be joyful and keep your faith and your belief, and do the little things that you heard and saw me do.”

With these words Dewi preached his last sermon, on the Sunday before his death, March 1, 588.

Bishop Rhygyfarch of St. David’s wrote the earliest Buchedd Dewi (Life of David) around 1090.

Descended from the royal house of Cunedda, David was the son of Gwyddno Garanhir, sanctus rex ceredigionis (holy king of Ceredigion).

Garanhir, which means “long crane”— perhaps he possessed long legs, was a druidic honorific signifying spiritual accomplishment. Even so, Rhygyfarch reports that Gwyddno raped David’s mother, Non, whose feast is celebrated by the Church in Wales on March 3. David was born around 520 at St. Non’s Chapel, above St. Non’s Bay, near St. David’s.

Two renowned monastic teachers contributed to David’s education. Illtyd, a native of Brittany, founded a monastery at Llanilltyd Fawr (“the Great Church of Illtyd”), later corrupted to Llantwit Major. David also studied under Peulin (Paulinus) at Llanddeusant, in what is now Sir Gaerfyrddin (Carmarthenshire).

While still a young priest, David founded an abbey near Mynyw (Menevia) at Glyn Rhosyn, the site of today’s Cathedral of St. David. David was its first abbot, and later he was elected a bishop. 

Because Glyn Rhosyn was a center for commerce and pilgrimage between Ireland and North Wales and Cornwall and Brittany, David’s monastery was a busy place. But the life of its religious, modeled on  the extreme asceticism of Egypt’s desert monks, was hard, marked by farming and other manual labor, prayer, and study.

David was known as Dewi Ddyfrwr― David the Waterman, perhaps for digging so many wells for water and wells for healing; or perhaps for his pious practice of standing for hours in the cold waters of Afon Alud (the Alud River); or perhaps because he allowed his monks to drink only water at meals instead of the usual wine or mead.

According to Rhygyfarch, Peulin insisted that David attend the Synod of Llanddewibrefi in 545 to combat the heresy known as Pelagianism, which asserted that salvation may be earned by human effort apart from God’s grace.

There is a delightful story about his arrival in the town. A crowd had gathered to hear him preach. Some of the people asked him to climb a nearby hill so everyone could see and hear him, but David humbly preferred to stay on level ground. But as he preached, the ground itself began to rise and formed a hill for his impromptu congregation! It is said that he spoke with such eloquence and learning at the Synod that he was made primate of the Welsh Church.

David founded twelve monastic houses during his ministry, and thereby joined an extraordinary generation of contemporary monks and missionaries such as Dyfrig, Teilo, Illtyd, Beuno, and Cadog. Theirs has been called “The Age of the Saints” in tribute to their “purity of life and zeal for the whole Gospel of Christ” (Collect for Saint David in Y Llyfr Gweddi Gyffredin i’w arfer yn Yr Eglwys yng Nghymru [The Book of Common Prayer for use in The Church in Wales]).

Eventually David moved the center of episcopal government in Wales to Mynyw, which is now called Tŷ-Dewi (House of David).

In 1120 David was canonized by Pope Callixtus II, the only Celtic saint to achieve this status. The pope also announced that two visits to St. David’s would be equal to one pilgrimage to Rome and that three visits would equal a pilgrimage to Jerusalem! St. David’s Cathedral was built in 1181, and over time he was recognized as the Patron Saint of Wales.

There are a number of lovely legends associated with David. It is said that as a child he was taught by a dove with a golden beak, which would perch on his shoulder and fly around him playfully. This allusion to the Holy Spirit recurs in stories about David, as when a dove again alighted on him as he spoke to the Synod of Brefi, thereby testifying to the source of his inspiration.

Here is the Collect for the feast of St. David in its entirety in Welsh and English, according to the Church in Wales’ Book of Common Prayer:

Hollalluog Dduw, a elwaist dy was Dewi, yn dy gariad at dy bobl, i fod yn oruchwyliwr ffyddlon a doeth ar dy ddirgeleddau: yn drugarog caniatâ fod i ni, gan ddilyn purdeb ei fuchedd a’i sêl dros holl Efengyl Crist, dderbyn gydag ef dy wobr nefol; trwy Iesu Grist ein Harglwydd, y bo iddo gyda thi a’r Ysbryd Glân bob anrhydedd a gogoniant, byth bythoedd. Amen.

Almighty God, who in love towards your people called your servant David to be a faithful and wise steward of your mysteries: mercifully grant that, following his purity of life and zeal for the whole Gospel of Christ, we may with him receive thy heavenly reward; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

The Welsh Prayer Book appoints these lessons for David’s commemoration: Sirach 15:1-6; 1 Thesaloniaid 2:2b-12; Salm 16:3, 6-9; Mathew 16:24-27

The (American) Episcopal Church’s Lesser Feasts and Fasts offers this slightly altered Collect:

Almighty God, you called your servant David to be a faithful and wise steward of your mysteries for the people of Wales: Mercifully grant that, following his purity of life and zeal for the Gospel of Christ, we may with him receive our heavenly reward; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Although the American Prayer Book retains the reading from 1 Thessalonians, it appoints either Psalm 16:5-11 or Psalm 96:1-7, and a reading from Mark 4:26-29.

One appropriate way to remember St. David would be to read these passages and reflect on why they were chosen to celebrate his life and ministry.

I am indebted to several sources for this brief biography, among them A Supplement to Exciting Holiness, compiled by Patrick Thomas and Philip Morris, © 1998 Church in Wales Publications; Dewi Sant /Saint David, by Elin Meek (h) Gwasg Gomer 2001 ©; Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2000, Church Publishing Incorporated; and Wikipedia.